


PS, I miss you

by AgreedEquation



Series: Snapshots of a Love Affair [24]
Category: Cricket RPF
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-18
Updated: 2015-10-18
Packaged: 2018-04-26 22:56:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,230
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5023798
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AgreedEquation/pseuds/AgreedEquation
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Quinton de Kock speaks his mind about Trent Boult.</p>
            </blockquote>





	PS, I miss you

“He is such an idiot,” Quinton said, looking at the magazine Dale was reading. The page Dale was on was an interview with Trent. “I bet you could make him shit his pants just by looking at him a bit mean,” he went on while playing with the food on his plate. He didn’t notice Dale’s fuming gaze as he picked up a piece of strawberry with his fork and put it in his mouth.

AB opened his mouth to say something, but Dale beat him to it. “If you say something like that about him again, I’ll make you shit your pants, de Kock. Or I might do more than just scare you.”

“Dale,” AB started, resting his hand on his friend’s shoulder. “Take it easy.”

“Yeah, come on, man. Since when are you defending someone like Trent Boult?” Quinton asked, raising an eyebrow. “He’s the opposition, we’ve got to smash him!”

“Quinton, don’t,” AB warned, turning towards the younger man. At times he felt like a kindergarten teacher, telling his toddlers to be nice to each other. So far Dale had only told him, Morné, Faf, JP and Hashim about his relationship with Trent. Quinton was completely oblivious. “Show some respect.”

Quinton shrugged his shoulders and continued eating. “I’m not being serious,” he said with a mouthful of fruit. “Not about the threatening part anyway. I do think he’s an idiot,” he went on. “I also think he’s a bum bandit. He was totally checking you out when we were playing against the Kiwis back home,” he said, pointing at Dale with his spoon. “Still don’t know why he even was there because he didn’t play. Maybe he’s into South African dudes?”

The vein on Dale’s forehead started becoming more and more visible as Quinton kept on talking. He threw the magazine on the table and stood up. “I don’t have to listen to this shit,” he muttered and walked off. If he had stayed, he probably would have punched Quinton.

“What did I do?” Quinton asked, looking at AB. “It’s not like he’s always nice when he talks about other players.”

AB shook his head and sighed. “Grow up, Quinny.” He got up too and walked after Dale.

The hotel gym was deserted and Dale walked straight towards the punching bag. He quickly strapped his hands with tape and started hitting the bag, trying his best to forget what had just happened.

“He’s still a kid, Dale,” AB said, crossing his arms in front of his chest as he watched his friend repeatedly hit the punching bag. “And you know what he’s like; always behaving all macho to impress us.”

“That still doesn’t give him the right to insult Trent like that,” Dale replied. If Quinton had been talking about any other player, he probably would have laughed it away, but _no one_ should insult Trent like that. “I know I’m overreacting, but I can’t help it.”

“I know, Dale.” AB nodded and took a step closer to his friend. “He was out of line, but you have to be able to keep your feelings in check,” he went on. “We’re here to play cricket, I need you to be focused on that. I can’t have two of my team members fighting with each other.”

“Why not?” Dale threw another punch at the bag, making it swing back and forth. “I’ll work it out on the ball if it’s the game you’re worried about.”

“I didn’t mean it like that.” AB rubbed the bridge of his nose. He loved Dale, but on an emotional level he could be quite complicated to deal with at times. “I’m worried you’ll do something stupid like punch someone or say something you’ll regret.”

“I’ve never punched anyone in my life.” Dale stopped hitting the bag and looked at AB. “You think I should tell the others too.” Telling his best friends about his relationship with Trent hadn’t been that difficult. They had already known that he was bisexual which made things a lot easier, but he wasn’t very keen on letting the other guys in on that aspect of his life. Plus, if more people knew about him and Trent, the risk of their secret leaking one way or another would grow.

“It’s not up to me to decide that,” AB replied. “But I do think it would be the best if you would just tell them.”

“Tell who what?” Quinton had decided to check on Dale, to see if he had cooled off yet. “What’s going on?”

Dale took a deep breath and punched the bag in front of him as hard as he could. “For fuck’s sake, man! Were you eavesdropping?”

“No, I just wanted to apologize,” Quinton said, shaking his head. “Although I’m not really sure what is going on anymore.”

“I fucking love him, alright?” Dale confessed, not looking at Quinton. “We’ve been dating for a couple of months,” he added, his voice sounding a lot softer than a few moments earlier. “So if you ever, for whatever stupid reason, feel the need to insult Trent again, then don’t, because I _will_ hurt you.”

All Quinton could manage in response was a quiet “Oh.”

“Could you leave us?” AB asked, looking at Quinton. “We’ll talk about this later.” Right now he needed Dale to calm down. “And keep this to yourself. This is not your secret to share with others.”

“Yeah, sure.” Quinton nodded. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to-”

“Later.” AB cut him off and sent him a small smile.

Without saying another word, Quinton turned around and left the gym.

“I know you’re angry at him for insulting Trent,” AB started as he leaned against the wall. “But you can’t threaten him like that,” he told Dale. “You should know better. He’s still young and needs to learn to respect others, including people he may or may not like, but you-” He pointed at his friend. “You should know better. You _know_ better. You’re usually not this irritable. Is there something else going on?”

“I just miss him,” Dale said, looking down at his feet.

AB stepped closer to Dale again and rested his hand on his shoulder. “Go back to your room and call him.”

“He’s probably busy,” Dale replied as he started taking the straps off his hands. “Don’t want to disturb him.”

AB chuckled lightly. “He loves you, he won’t care,” he stated. “He probably misses you as much as you miss him.” He knew exactly how Dale was feeling. The first time he had been apart from Danielle for more than a few weeks, he had felt absolutely miserable. He had missed her voice, her touch, her smile and there was nothing in the world that could have made him feel better. It was even worse since he had become a father and had to leave his son behind as well.

“You’re probably right,” Dale replied, nodding. He was yearning to hear Trent’s voice. “Sorry for being such a jerk,” he muttered, giving his friend an apologetic look.

“Don’t worry about it. You go back to your room and I’ll go talk to Quinton, make sure he keeps quiet about this.” AB slung his arm around Dale’s shoulder and led him to the door of the gym. “You should probably talk to him too. Maybe apologize for threatening him?”

“Yeah, yeah, fine.”


End file.
